Intelligent Design

Center for Science and Culture

The article by physicists David Snoke, Jeffery Cox, and Donald Petcher begins by observing that in order to produce a new system, evolution first needs to try lots of new things. It must generate many, many variations upon which natural selection can act in order to “find” something useful to retain. But that comes with a potentially fatal cost. Read the rest at Evolution News & Views.

The myth of junk DNA continues to unravel. Almost daily (sometimes twice daily) new peer-reviewed articles are appearing in the scientific literature pointing out the functions of previously believed to be “non-functioning” or junk DNA. CSC’s Research Coordinator Casey Luskin says: “When we look for function, we find it, and when we don’t look for function, someone else finds it.” Read his report at Evolution News & Views.

Casey Luskin reviews Bill Nye’s latest book, Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation, and finds it underwhelming when compared to another bestseller, Darwin’s Doubt. According to Luskin: “If you think Nye’s ideology is bad, wait until you see the science he uses to justify these claims.” Read more at Evolution News & Views.

Intelligent design theory expects that we should find deeper and deeper layers of function in biology, which by the same token represents a big problem for Darwinian evolution. In the past we’ve noted papers finding function for synonymous codons (for example, see here and here) — but the functions reported in those papers generally pertained to controlling translation speed. Now a paper in the journal Cell has found a new potential function, namely that synonymous codons can control the rate at which mRNA transcripts degrade and are broken down within cells. Casey Luskin reports at Evolution News & Views.

Don’t miss Eric Metaxas’ recent Wall Street Journal article (reportedly WSJ’s most popular article ever published on their website), in which he examines the question: “At what point is it fair to admit that science suggests that we cannot be the result of random forces?” Metaxas’ article continues to stir debate, sparking both enthusiastic agreement and denunciation. To go deeper into the theory of intelligent design, Metaxas has recommended reading CSC Director Stephen Meyer’s Darwin’s Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design.

Don’t miss Eric Metaxas’ recent Wall Street Journal article (reportedly WSJ’s most popular article ever published on their website), in which he examines the question: “At what point is it fair to admit that science suggests that we cannot be the result of random forces?” Metaxas’ article continues to stir debate, sparking both enthusiastic agreement and denunciation. To go deeper into the theory of intelligent design, Metaxas has recommended reading CSC Director Stephen Meyer’s Darwin’s Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design.

Discovery Institute’s newest documentary Privileged Species presents compelling evidence that the Earth is designed not only for life, but specifically for human life. The film, featuring Biochemist Michael Denton, takes a look the special properties of carbon, water, and oxygen that make human life possible, and the unique features of humans that make us truly privileged on this earth. Privileged Species is now available for purchase at Amazon.com.

Nobody knows scientifically if aliens exist. Nobody knows scientifically what the meaning of life is, or the true content of morality. When scientists speculate on such things, their opinions may be interesting — after all, they are smart people — or maybe not. Read More ›

By CSC Senior Fellow David Klinghoffer. Originally published at Evolution News & Views.

Along with the absurd stereotype that support for ID is limited to right-wing fundamentalist Christians — tell that to Stephen King, as I noted the other day — there’s also the Darwinist agitprop point that advocates of the theory are rare outside the United States. Hardly! An unacknowledged strength of the ID movement is its international character. Read More ›

New Film Explores Social Darwinist Roots of World War IThe Biology of the 2nd Reich debuts August, 18th 2014

SEATTLE – The Biology of the 2nd Reich, a new 14-minute documentary, tells the little-known story of the influence of Social Darwinism on German militarism leading up to World War I, including an exploration of the German military’s genocidal policies in Southwest Africa. Read More ›